rnl

Park assist pays for itself every day, specifically Every time I non parallel park near a concrete parking block or curb.

We can all park these cars. We all cannot see low obstacles that are just high enough to scrape the car

adave

I would not pay cash for my Porsche until -

1. House paid off

2 - $1 million in investable assets as well

3 - no debt

That is just me though ymmv

rodsky

This is not necessarily sound advice. If you have $101K in the bank and nothing else (asset wise or investment wise), then you could theoretically write a check and not have to finance the car. Alternatively, you could have $3M in rental properties and $50K in the bank and you cant write a check. Plus, there are all the other circumstances surrounding YOU. Whats your income, are you married do you have kids and other financial commitments. The problem with general financial advice is that it and $2 will get you a cup of coffee.

You need to find out if you can afford the car. Then whether you buy, lease or finance it depend on what makes sense given everything else.

BED997

Why not find a great certified pre owned P car? Plenty of good ones out there if you are careful to do the pre purchase inspection.

You could own it for two years under warranty and see if you really love it. If not, you haven't had as much of a depreciation hit when you sell/trade and move on.

At least go look at and drive a few used cars that have been "gently" pre owned before you make a decision to buy new. I drove some nice CPO cars, and then walked away from some CPOs when I could clearly tell they weren't maintained in the same way.

GSIRM3

I have to agree with this.

Porschegaleno

Well, thanks for the advice. I didnt know Suzie Orman belongs to this forum LOL!!. I also didnt know that the only way to buy a Porsche was CASH!. My plan is to place 80K down and finance 30K because, it is the only way I can afford a Porsche NOW. To be honest, NO CAR is worth more than 30K, a Porsche is a luxury. You buy a Porsche not for its dollar value or as an investement. You buy a Porsche for the feeling you get when you are driving the beast. It is like Viagra for the Ego. I could do better things with 100K, but I have decided in "wasting it" in a Porsche. Everybody always mentions the depreciation cost, so what! Im wasting 40K in 3 years for getting the kick out of owning a 911. When I was earning 50K a year I bought a 25K toyota car (50% my annual salary) but now Im being a little more responsible since I am only spending 33% of my annual salary for a car. Anyways I love your advice and I know your advice is well intended.
Please, advice me in the options for my car. Suzie ... I heard you LOL

adave

Lol good post. I dont begrudge anyone for buying a 911. It is a pure luxury item u r right but you have to enjoy life as well.

I am just saying for me I have to feel really comfortable in my financial situation before dropping 100k plus on a car.

adave

As for options I am planning to spend less on interior luxury stuff and more on performance - like PDK, sport chrono, pasm, pse

cmb13

That's funny! Now let's hear the answer!

Mechanic

Unusual metaphor. You could just tell your sales representative this is what you're looking for in a Porsche.

GSIRM3

You can afford to put 80K down, but can't afford the "rest" of the car without a loan?

solomonschris

Ms. Ormand has been so wrong about so much, I don't understand why she is allowed on TV. I paid cash for my Bentley GTC. That should qualify me as both rich and stupid. I bought a new 991 C2S cab. I financed 75K at 2.7%. Since the aggregate return of my investments is greater than that, I thought that was an easy call. Even if that were not the case, I would be tempted to finance at such a low rate in order to keep my powder dry (investment money). This is just me, and I need to state here that several of my friends have gotten quite rich ignoring my advice.

GSIRM3

Sounds like you could afford cash or the financing. I think people are just saying that if one must finance a Porsche to be able to have it, one probably can't afford it. I think you are also right about Suze Orman.

GeneD

If you're having to finance a Porsche, you shouldn't buy one. Actually, that goes for pretty much any car except Civic's, Corolla's, Cruz's, Sentra's, etc. bought as a first new car.

Oh please. Only you can decide where your priorities lie. Make an educated decision. If you are single and want to eat rice and beans to buy your dream car and know the sacrifices you will make and are comfortable with that, do it. If you have a family and they will suffer due to your selfishness, then shame on you.

I bought a 997 C2 coupe when it was more than my annual income. I ended up selling due to not liking the standard transmission after I moved to DC. I plan to buy a 991 soon. Should I? No. Will I? Probably.

We won't all live to 80 and have 5 generations of children to look after and inherit our worldy goods. Will I extend myself where I have to watch pennies to make payments and have exorbitant credit card bills? No. Will I decide what is important and piroritize those items? Yes.

A smug grin that you bought the car with cash is not necessary.

Gene

goatboy

Yeah, yeah... funny. This “financing” thing really took off, huh?

The big picture is realizing what owning a zoot car really costs. Leasing, financing, or writing a check are all pretty much a wash, especially these days. You'll pay that depreciation, regardless. There are a lot of zoot cars around that own people instead of the other way around... and they were all financed.

If you're only spending 1/3 of your annual income on a 911... congratulations.

I'm perplexed, though. If you're putting down $80k, why not avoid the indignity and embarrassment of a car loan and stroke a check for the whole thing, but six weeks later? I get a particular enjoyment from writing checks for cars. In addition to "affirming dominance," it greatly streamlines the process.

O.k., here’s Suzie’s comments on your configuration:

I"m still on the fence about PDK. It's a big advantage on the track, though. It's also something else to break. I have a few more PSDS's before I have to make that decision.

I'm not sure the alphabet soup of driver's aids are worth the money. The best performance enhancement is track time.

Other than colors (mine's going to be white with a blue interior), your spec's are pretty much what I'm getting.

I'd spend some time sitting in both the 14-way and 18-way seats, and specifically climbing in and out of them.

I thought a heated steering wheel was dumb until I got one in a rental car in the winter up north.

I'm going with the Sport Design steering wheel (aluminum spokes) and aluminum interior trim. I'm annoyed that they still use plastic trim on the arm rests (unless you get the full leather interior) and 18-way seat shells, though. That's leaning me toward the 14-way seats.

This is personal taste and trivial, but I think the standard badging “PORSCHE” and “Carrera S,” is too much together. I’d go with “911” or “model designation delete.”

I like the Carrera Classic wheels, because there not painted on the lips. The best tire installer in the world will likely scratch or at least scuff the painted lrim ips removing ultra low-profile, high performance tires. I currently drive 90 miles to get my tires installed and patched using a Chorgi tire machine, but they still sometimes leave a little scuff on the rim lips.

I like the aluminum exterior window trim, especialy with Carrera Classic wheels and aluminum spoked steering wheel.

The SportTechno wheels, although painted on the lips, really show off the brakes and make them accessible for cleaning. I suspect I’ll be regularly waxing the red calipers… one of the reasons I’m waiting until retirement to get mine.

The sport exhaust is really tempting, but the price is up there. I used to hate Billy Bob in his Flowmaster equipped pick-up making a chewing tobacco and beer run down my street at midnight. But, I’ve learned that (my) engine noise is pleasurable.

Somebody suggested Pentagon Federal Credit Union (penfed.org). There's a back door for joining, and they're great for loans. But, they are picky about who they loan to and how much. That's why they had one of the lowest mortgage default rates in the meltdown.

If you're pulling in that kind of jack, dip into your latte and petty cash fund and go to PSDS. The offer classes in the sequence in back-to-back pairs: Performance & Masters, Masters & Masters Plus, Masters Plus & GT3 Cup. You will love your new Porsche even more, and you'll do things with their cars that you'd likely never do with your own. That's likely why the GT3 owner from California's taken Masters Plus 24 times and he's heading back in a few weeks.

Performance and the first day of Masters is follow-the-instructor on the track. The last day of Masters and all of Masters Plus (except the GT3 and Turbo sessions) are “open track” with rules for passing.

The womens will dig your new car. I take my nice car to work only every once and a while, avoiding Florida sunlight damage and parking lot dings. But, it did make an impression on the office hottie #1, former stripper turned mathematician. She jumped in it, started jumping up and down, and turning the steering wheel just like a little kid. She asked it if was fast. I said yes, but the best thing about it is that it's a babe magnet. She turned the rear view mirror to look at herself, fluffed her hair, and said "Yes, yes it is." Even the tree-hugging, militant-socialist hottie #2 had to check out my car. Usually, tree-hugging, militant-socialsts hate zoot cars. The tree-hugging, militant-socialist non-hottie hated me even more because of my car, but that’s a good thing.